I don't know how many fans of NPR radio we have out there, and I don't want to start a debate about their politics. I just want to tell you about a radio interview I did with them yesterday, NPR in Seattle, in which I was a guest for them representing (more or less) the cruise industry.

First of all, the topic was the Seattle cruising season starting Monday in Seattle. They will host 750,000 visitors and over 200 ship visits as a result. You think that would make them happy, right?

Wrong.

I was there to respond to some five different people, all of which had nothing but negative things to say about cruises. Worst of all these people were idiots (pardon my French). Most of them had "cruise experience" that was oveer ten years old. Somne of the comments I got...

"I took a cruise when I was much younger, and I would never take another one. The idea of being stuck on a small boat with "those kind" of people is enough to deter me from ever getting on another one." - no qualification of when she went, what ship, etc etc etc

Another one who was supposedly an EXPERT said he formerly worked in guest relations for a cruise line. "What horror stories did you hear?" they actually asked him.

"Well, one family had a pipeline of concentrated orange juice explode into their cabin and it ruined their clothes and luggage." (WHAT HUH????)

"And I heard a lot of complaints about the cruise line (unidentified) assigning roommates to people who would come home drunk, have drugs, or even bring strangers back into the room to have sex." (WHAT, HUH?) -- no cruise line has done this in 10 yearsm and when they did it was solely at the request of the single cruiser who wanted a roommate to save money. But this radio show actually left the topic hanging as if rondom roommate assignment is something that happens on all cruise ships to this day. What IDIOTS!!!!!

There were more examples....

They never gave me a chance to respond to these comments, they had them, went to a break, then came back and gave me a softball question. Never again will I be so polite in the face of such obvious bias. FYI - I have been emailing them all day yesterday to express my outrage, and have not even gotten to courtesy of a reply.

Here is a link to the show. I urge all of you to listen to it and tell them what a travesty it was...

I just listened to it. It sounds like a typical agenda related program that will respond with, "You were allowed to state your side of the issue. We were just allowing all sides to be heard." Or some other rhetoric.

They had an agenda and they fulfilled it. I did have to laugh at the environmentalist, biologist, naturalist or whatever he was that was relying on ten year old information on cruise ship waste disposal information. Didn't he realize that the almost every ship sailing in Alaska is newer than any ship he last sailed on and waste treatment has drastically changed in those ten years. RCI being caught red handed dumping sewage didn't help and they have taken great steps to make sure it won't happen again.

The entire final half of the program (I checked the scroll bar) was devoted to negatives on cruising. If that didn't show an agenda nothing else does. I also noticed they never came back to you. With them not going back to you to address the comments, said volumes. It was something out of Fox News. (Hey, they all do it)

My daughter was an on-air consultant on the local "Air America" pet show. She walked out in the middle of the third show. The host cut her mike off whenever she spoke about traditional medication or euthanasia for terminal animals. She does support holistic medicine but also believes in traditional medicine. They tried to sue her for breach of contract but dropped it.

Anyone for Schwetty Balls?

Take care,
Mike

Take care,
Mike

__________________Cruisemates Community Leader/Moderator

"There is a great difference between being well traveled and just having been to many places." ~Me

Sorry! These people are unfair. This is even why I shy away from watching the news and cable news shows. They all put a spin even that no spin guy Bill O'Rielly once debated the "cruise mishap" topic and he was doin lots of spining. As a TA I get people concerned sometimes about cruise ship safety and illness but I solve that with my knowledge and cruise experience.